Cuvée Shuttered. Temporarily?

Photo Courtesy scvhappyhour.com
Maybe the spot in which Cuvée occupies is cursed. The bistro/raw bar/seafood restaurant at the Bridgeport Marketplace on Newhall Ranch and McBean suffered from a couple false starts early on, first as “Chop House” which was little more than a re-skinning of the former Sake which was there, but with the same owner, much of the same staff and still the same attitude toward food and service (which was poor at best). Finally a new owner came in and took over, extensively remaking their image and launching with a literal splash offering $20 2-pound lobster dinners for a limited time. A steal by any measure.

But all too quickly that promotion was over and the crowds started to dwindle, and quickly. Instead of lobster, most recently they offered a snow crab special for $20 that wasn’t at all comparable, and the lobster prices soared through the roof, with steak and lobster being offered at near $60 (not unreasonable, but sticker shock from the prices before). I recently stopped in just to check out the place and see how it was doing, and there was literally nobody there. Not a single table. We’ve been hearing rumors that they’ve been doing as few as six tables a night recently.

The rumors didn’t stop at the low customer counts. The owner of the restaurant allegedly had suffered some problems (that we won’t go into, but we’ll acknowledge would be difficult for anyone) away from the restaurant which was taking up her time and she wasn’t able to focus on running the restaurant. Staffers have told eatSCV that there was no longer a schedule made out in advance and that they’d get a text asking if they could come in to work on a given day, often times with just a few hours notice.

Finally, last Wednesday, the straw that broke the, um, lobster’s back came in the form of a ruptured pipe. The restaurant has been shuttered since. Finally, yesterday, Cuvée acknowledged the closure in a facebook post that ended somewhat ominously… “I AM GOING FISHING.”

The posting does say that they’ll be remodeling, but also indicates that they’ll be closed “at least the next couple of months.”

Given the struggles that they’ve suffered in the past few months, I’m not optimistic that they’ll reopen, certainly not to be the same restaurant they were. Too bad, because they were really trying to elevate the game here in Santa Clarita, and according to Lady Ducayne were the comeback story of the year. That is, until now.